Gita received her Ph.D. in synthetic biology from Potsdam University, Germany. She embarked on her PostDoc research journey at the Institute for Chemistry at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. In 2021, she joined Marc Erhardt's laboratory at the Institute for Biology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Since then, she has been working as a PostDoc at Emmanuelle Charpentier’s laboratory at MPUSP and Marc Erhardt’s laboratory at the Institute for Biology of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Gita Naseri’s work has been recognized by several awards, including the NNPDF Fellowship award from the National Niemann-Pick Disease Foundation (USA) and the Go-Bio initial funding program of the German Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF, Germany). Gita received an Emmy Noether grant from the DFG for her Independent Research Group at the Institute of Biology at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
Sandie received her Bachelor's and Master's of Biology degrees in Medical Biochemistry from the University of Leeds (UK) in 2018 and went on to do a Royal Society of Chemistry-funded internship at Hypha Discovery (UK) as a biotransformation scientist. She then embarked on a PhD in 2019, joining John McCarthy's laboratory working on yeast RNA synthetic biology at the University of Warwick (UK). Sandie completed her PhD in 2024 and, following this, joined the research group led by Gita Naseri as a postdoctoral research fellow to work on optimal biosynthesis of natural products using synthetic biology approaches in yeast.
Shanna, originally from China, began her undergraduate studies in Bioengineering at Nanjing Tech University in 2017. In 2019, she participated in a three-month exchange program at the University of Cambridge and graduated with a Bachelor's in Engineering in 2021. She pursued a Master's in Biochemical Engineering at Tianjin University, graduating with honors in 2024. During her studies, Shanna conducted research at the Research Institute of Petrochemical Engineering, Sinopec, focusing on yeast gene editing. In August 2024, she joined Gita Naseri's research group to pursue her Ph.D.
Madhushruti began her academic journey at the Cotton University in India, graduating in 2020 with a bachelor's degree in Biotechnology. She further was awarded a master's degree in Biotechnology & Bioinformatics from The Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology (India) in 2022. She had been working in various aspects of genetic engineering, with special focus on CRISPR gene editing methods and yeast metabolic engineering. Madhushruti joined the lab as a PhD student in August 2024; she is currently focusing on metabolically engineering Pichia pastoris for harnessing natural products. Academics apart, she enjoys painting and craftwork.
Isabel began her academic journey at the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena (Germany), where she received her Bachelor's degree in Biochemistry in 2021. She then pursued further studies at the University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands), completing a Master's degree in Biomedical Sciences in 2023. In November 2023, Isabel joined the research group led by Gita Naseri. Since then, she engaged in the field of genetic engineering, with a particular emphasis on engineering yeast Pichia pastoris to facilitate the production of natural products.
Jolita holds a Bachelor's in Biology and a Master's in Microbiology from Vilnius University (Lithuania). With five years of diverse laboratory experience, she has developed expertise in molecular biology, experimental techniques, and microbial ecology. She has also worked on projects investigating the viral role in nitrogen metabolism and population dynamics of filamentous cyanobacteria. During her under- and postgraduate studies, she gained valuable experience in clinical virology and microbiology laboratories. Jolita joined the lab as Technical Assistant in June 2024.